Two thousand Bangladeshi citizens blocked major highways and railways for six hours on March 28 and demanded a response from the prime minister by April 11. They are calling on her to honor a 2006 agreement to ban open-pit coal mining in the country. For seven years, Bangladeshi citizens, including the National Indigenous Union (Jatiya Adivasi Parishad) have fiercely protested a British company’s plan for open-pit mining in Phulbari.

The following two articles regard massive protests that took place in Bangladesh yesterday demanding a ban on open pit mining scheduled to break ground in the northwest region of Phulbari.  See Cultural Survival's Action Alert on Bangladesh here to send a letter in solidarity with the Indigenous farmers of this area against the destruction of their land. 

On Friday, March 25th, Global Response program director Paula Palmer was interviewed on Bob Kincaid's radio program "Head On" regarding the campaign in Bangladesh against the Phulbari coal mine.  A native of West Virgina, Bob is very interested in communities struggles against the coal industry.

By Kate Hoshour, IAP Senior Research Fellow
Roughly 2,000 protesters united to blockade a highway in the Phulbari region this week and demanded that the government honor a six-point agreement, signed on August 31, 2006.